Users experiencing slow movie rental downloads via Apple TV or iTunes should make sure they're not using a centralized domain name service such as Google DNS, which can dramatically slow down media access to Content Delivery Networks.

Google's vice president of engineering Andy Rubin sent out his second tweet, this time announcing the company is now activating 300,000 Android phones each day. That's unlikely to have passed Apple's current activation rate for iOS devices, and Google is making no direct revenues from the widespread distribution of its software.

In contrast to all the "iPod-killers" imagined by Apple's competitors, new research quantifies just how much Apple's iOS platform has done to actually displace standalone gaming devices like the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.

Apple has launched a pilot of its EasyPay custom mobile retail software in a trial with Gap subsidiary Old Navy, opening a new market for the iPod touch in handheld payment transactions. [Update: This third-party report is erroneous, see here.]

Black Friday has brought an assortment of discounts on essential Mac software, including up to 80% off Adobe's Creative Suite 5 bundles, Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 for $89, Apple's Final Cut Studio for $799, and VMWare Fusion for $28, among others.

Early Black Friday discounts from Apple's authorized resellers continue to crop up Thursday, including offers for 20% off the new Apple TV, Microsoft Office 2011 for $89.99, VMWare Fusion for $27.99 and 64GB iPod touches for $349.

Apple on Thursday released an update containing bug and security fixes for its Safari Web browser, with version 5.0.3 for Windows, Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard, and 4.1.3 for Mac users running Tiger.

Experimenters have discovered the configuration files Apple removed from the public release of Mac OS X 10.6.5; adding them back restores the ability to print from iOS devices to shared printers on the Mac.

Last minute stability and compatibility problems with Apple's AirPrint for iOS devices may have forced the company to delay Mac and Windows support indefinitely, mitigating the impact of the much-anticipated wireless printing technology first previewed two months ago.

Many of Apple's customers in enterprise environments are shocked by the company's decision to discontinue the Xserve. There's an easy answer why it happened: they weren't selling well. Here's why, and how the company may address the server market in the future, using lessons learned from iOS.

The next major revamp of Apple's iWork productivity suite is finished and ready to go, but the company may hold back the release until it gets around to launching the Mac App Store early next year, AppleInsider has been told.